Best Of 2007: Top 30 Albums

30. Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad

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29. A Place To Bury Strangers - A Place To Bury Strangers

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28. Ben Frost - Theory Of Machines

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27. Maps - We Can Create

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26. Stars Of The Lid - And Their Refinement Of The Decline

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25. Menomena - Friend And Foe

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24. Glass Candy - B/E/A/T/B/O/X

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23. Gui Boratto - Chromophobia

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22. Deepchord presents Echospace - The Coldest Season

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21. Strategy - Future Rock

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20. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

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19. Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance

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18. Britney Spears - Blackout

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17. Justice - †

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16. Battles - Mirrored

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15. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

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14. Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36

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13. Björk - Volta

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12. Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future

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11. Lo-Fi-FNK - Boylife

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10. The National - Boxer

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9. Chromatics - Night Drive

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8. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

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7. M.I.A. - Kala

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6. Deerhunter - Cryptograms

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5. Studio - Yearbook 1

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4. Burial - Untrue

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3. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

The most evocative record of the year reminded us all that when something is perfect, there's nothing else to do than looping and repeating it over and over. And, as these tracks showed, you can do wonders by streching an isolated sound to its limits, even if, in the end, that sound reveals itself to be taken from a (gasp) Lionel Richie song.

(review)

2. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

In an year dominated by global music (americans re-inventing italo-disco, scandinavians dreaming about the beach, everybody doing shoegazing or nu-rave, Björk going to Africa, M.I.A. covering the whole world...), the most beautiful record actually came from a regular Swedish guy and his local postcards from a small Gothenburg neighborhood. With a disarming sincerity, someone exposed himself to the limits and showed common life in its full glory.

(review)

1. The Tough Alliance - A New Chance

When you write perfect synth-pop tunes and immerse them in an excessive world, you take a lot of risks. This fearless and controversial Swedish duo did just that and, with their agit-prop antics and explosive imaginary, ended up soundtracking anarchy and revolution, giving us the finger with a pop smile and incendiary results. Couldn't be more approppriate as the sound of 2007.

(review)